There are so many people throughout history who laid their lives down to save others. In the most oppressive and dangerous times, some human hearts soar above their unimaginable circumstances to accept a higher call. These people choose not to turn their backs on strangers. They step out of their privileges and choose to make a difference for as long as they can.
I thought about naming Irena Sendler to some sort of "Willing Hearts Hall of Fame" until I read a quote she made last year at the age of 97. She said, "Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory". I realized that she didn't place much value in being honored. But I bet she wouldn't mind more people knowing what happened when she was a young welfare social worker in Poland.
Irena was 29 in 1939, Warsaw, Poland at the beginning of WW2. Poland issued a death penalty for anyone helping a Jewish person. Jewish people were taken by force to a large ghetto which they would probably never leave. Irena decided not to turn her back as I am sure she was instructed. I can only imagine the fear and panic that must have been pervasive in her country at that time. She led a group of people that chose to put their lives on the line. Maybe they were restless and intense, as some of us are. Maybe some of them had already spent their lives serving others, while some had lived comfortable lives until the atrocities in their community began. Probably they all had a feeling of urgency that they didn't have much time. - They didn't.
In October 1940 they began rescue efforts. They went into the ghetto, pretending to be working, and brought children out in ambulances, trams, baskets, and probably anything else available. Sometimes the children were wrapped up as packages. Irena helped teens escape when they were forced to labor outside the ghetto. The children were hidden in homes, while Irena recorded their names in hopes of tracking families when the war was over.
They worked until April of 1943 when the Nazis destroyed the ghetto, and sent any survivors to the death camps. Irena was arrested and sent to prison. I don't think any of us can possibly imagine what a Nazi prison at that time was like. She was tortured but refused to tell of the work she had been part of. I can only imagine the anger in Heaven as she endured the physical torture that left scars for the rest of her life. Her friends from an underground group paid a bribe, and miraculously she was released. She had hidden her lists of names in a jar that she buried under a tree in a friend's yard. The jar held 2,500 children's names. In 2 1/2 years, she and the other messengers saved the lives of 2,500 children.
Breathe that in for a moment. 2,500 children that were able to survive the war and the torturing of their people. They survived to grow up and become parents and grandparents. Each of those 2,500 lives holds a story of their own. Their story would have been extinguished at the hands of genocide, and no one would have ever known their names. All because a small group of people led by a 29 year-old social worker decided they would rather lose their lives than turn their backs.
Irena's story smashes the fears inside me that hold me back. Sometimes you just decide to step out and do what needs to be done. Few of us will ever face a choice of the magnitude that Irena and the secret messengers faced. Imagine if the scary paths we feel called to: adoption, relief work, missions, HIV/AIDS work, foster care, working with inner city youth, people in recovery, people facing homelessness etc. carried a death penalty for our involvement.
Tomorrow, and the next day, let's throw our fears out the window and embrace making a difference, in honor of Irena and her friends. I have a feeling that is the kind of honor that she would appreciate most.
Info for this post taken from "Irena Sendler, social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children from Holocaust, dies at age 98" by Monika Scislowska, Associated Press Writer. A biography by Anna Mieszkowska titled "Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Story of Irena Sendler" was published in 2005. Hallmark has begun producing a movie based on Mieszkowska's book.
1 comment:
What an incredible woman. Thanks for sharing her story.
Post a Comment